


Staying

by flojo_jojo



Series: Tyrus: The Extended Cut [2]
Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Canon Related, Canon Universe, Closeted, During Canon, Episode Fix-it, Episode: s03e07 The New Girls, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, M/M, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, Pining, Teenage Drama, The Swing Set (Andi Mack), extended talk on The Swings(TM), tyrus talks about their "stuff"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29650254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flojo_jojo/pseuds/flojo_jojo
Summary: "Okay if I stay?"- - - - -The rest of that talk on the swings before it faded to black. Or, the extended Tyrus content Disney refuses to give us.
Relationships: Cyrus Goodman/T. J. Kippen
Series: Tyrus: The Extended Cut [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188404
Comments: 11
Kudos: 39





	Staying

**Author's Note:**

> I finished Andi Mack recently and I've been obsessed with all the ships in the show, including Tyrus of course. But it really bugged me how the gay pairing got so little development compared to the others, so here's something I made to sort of remedy that. 
> 
> I may end up turning this into a series of short canon compliant Tyrus fics, just random scenes here or there that could be read as an "extended cut" of what we got in the show. I've got a few ideas already, but it's really going to depend on how interest--both my own and other's--keeps up with this. 
> 
> Anyways, enjoy!

"Okay if I stay?"

Cyrus didn't say anything, but the silent nod and smile was enough. TJ fell back into his swing as the other retook his own, and they sat side by side once more. Like... normal.

"I'm sorry. For everything with Reed this time," TJ said. "And the... you know. Man, I was doing so well too." He sighed, hanging his head and kicking at the dirt. "Guess I was bound to ruin it sooner or later."

"You didn't ruin anything." Cyrus said. He was, in the meanwhile, perched securely on his swing, two steady feet planted firmly on the ground. "I'm not angry at you."

"Well you should be. What idiot hangs out with guys like that, right? And gets his other friends involved with it too?"

"You're not an idiot."

"Yeah, I kind of am."

"No, you're not." Cyrus's tone had fallen into that matter-of-factly timbre, at this point all too familiar to TJ. He jokingly referred to it as Cyrus's "therapist voice": his tone would fall lower, he'd talk slower, each word enunciated with an extra degree of care. Like he was informing, warning, and reassuring, all at once.

"You said you didn't know they brought it, and if you had known you wouldn't have gone. And I believe you. It was a mistake, and mistakes happen. I'm not angry at you." He sighed. "I haven't been angry at you since all this started. I've just been... worried."

"... Worried?" TJ looked up. Cyrus nodded. It was his turn to drop his gaze to the ground.

"That kind of thing isn't a toy," he continued. "They're dangerous-- _extremely_ dangerous--and the idea that you might have been regularly putting yourself in that danger... I was never angry." A dry chuckle escaped his lips. "In fact, I was worried _you'd_ be mad at _me_."

"What? Me mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. For telling on you, I guess?"

TJ snorted. "If I got mad at you about that I'd be even dumber than an idiot."

Cyrus laughed. "Well that's good to hear. It's not like I want you mad at me either." He smiled softly. With renewed strength he lifted his head up again, turning back towards the other boy. "The day had been fun up until then, you know. I never thought I'd ever ride a dirt bike."

"Oh yeah?" TJ asked. His entire demeanour lightened with Cyrus's latest words. In fact, his whole body felt lighter. "I'm glad you had fun! You did really well for your first time out, you know. If you ever wanna head out again just say the word."

"Well, I appreciate the offer but I think I'll have to decline. I prefer there to be a bit more buffer between me and the ground when I'm moving at high speeds, and I only have a finite number of shoes left to lose."

This time TJ laughed, fully and wholeheartedly. A smile spread across on his face and Cyrus couldn't help but smile back. There had always been something infectious about TJ's smile. He didn't see it a lot as the other went about his day, but it seemed a much more frequent occurrence when the two of them were together. 

Well, he thought anyways. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. 

"You need to have more confidence in yourself dude," TJ said, interrupting the other's thoughts. "You can do more than you think."

"Can't help it. It's a part of my stuff."

"Yeah, I never got that."

"Never got what?"

"How that's part of your 'stuff.'''

Cyrus looked at TJ, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well it's, uh, how do I put it?" The jock knit his brows together, lips pursed as he searched for the right words.

"You have all your... 'stuff', but you're so... _okay_ , with having stuff." As he stumbled through his explanation he began rocking on his swing. "You never try to hide those parts of you. It's like you're... confident, in what you're not confident about. If that makes any sense?" 

"So like... I'm confident in my insecurities?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Confident in your insecurities. You'll easily admit things like 'I can't do a somersault' or 'I can't get my own muffin' without even flinching. It's... not something a lot of people can do." TJ's gaze dropped once more. "I never got how you could be so okay with yourself but still have no confidence in doing things."

"Hmm." Cyrus shoved his feet against the dirt, pushing himself into a low swing. He let the silence sit between them as he rocked back and forth, thinking.

"... Well, aren't you kind of the opposite?" he finally said.

"Huh?" TJ looked up, somewhat startled out of the brief lull between them. He stomped against the ground and stopped his own rocking.

"How so?"

"I guess... insecure about your confidence?" Cyrus said, still swinging lowly.

"I..." TJ trailed off. His fists strangled the swing chains. 

The old TJ would have probably snapped back at that, gotten angry and stormed off, taken it as some sort of personal insult he could possibly be insecure about _anything_ \--but he was trying to be better now, trying to be less mean, trying to be more... open about things. 

With Cyrus, at least. Because Cyrus was the only person he could talk to like this. He left his sentence unfinished, unable to find purchase with an objection.

"You carry yourself with the confidence of the team captain of the basketball team," Cyrus continued. "And that confidence isn't fake either. When you're good at something, you know it--it's honestly intimidating sometimes. But when you're not good at something, like math, or when someone could be better than you at something, like Buffy--" Cyrus had stopped kicking his feet, letting gravity slowly pull him back down to rest. He turned to look at TJ. 

"--that's suddenly all that matters. Your flaws, your problems, everything 'wrong' with you. How can you have so much confidence in doing things when you're so 'not okay' with yourself?"

 _Ouch. That hurt._ And his face must have shown it too, with the immediate panic that flashed across Cyrus's.

"I don't mean it in a bad way!" The boy frantically back-pedalled. "I mean, I think you _should_ be okay with yourself! You're a great guy, and you're really good at a lot of things, and you know from my most-definitely-biased-but-still-worth-consideration-of-an opinion I don't think you should be so hard on yourself--"

"You're fine, Underdog." TJ forced a crooked grin onto his face. "I mean... you've got a point. I guess my 'stuff' doesn't make much sense either."

"Not-so-scary basketball guy," Cyrus muttered back, almost reflexively. "Emphasis on 'not-so-scary.'" He chuckled before returning the weak smile. "But that's just what 'stuff' is, isn't it? It doesn't really make sense if you think about it, yet we'll still get all hung up on it and let it control how we act. That's why it's... stuff."

"Yeah..." TJ's voice softened. "Everyone has stuff... And stuff just doesn't make sense."

"Everyone has stuff." Cyrus smiled. His body relaxed into his seat, shoulders sinking into his posture. "And I don't mind helping you out with your stuff. It's what friends do."

TJ looked back at Cyrus. "You've already helped me out more than anyone else," he said. The ease had returned to his own smile. "I just hope I can help you as much as you've already helped me."

"You've helped me a lot dude! You taught me how to do a somersault! I went 13 years not knowing how to do a somersault. 13 _years_ , Teej, and _you_ were the one who broke the curse."

TJ snorted. "Somehow I feel that doesn't match up to literally teaching me how to be a better person."

"Oh trust me, for me it does."

This time he laughed. "Well, if you say so. I just want to be a good friend to you, like you are to me. You know I could never talk about this kind of stuff with my other fr--well, former friends."

"Well... I don't think they were very good friends to begin with." Cyrus admitted. "You can do better."

"Aww, well I've got you. I think that's 'better', don't you?"

"Oh, please don't try to make me say something that positive about myself. We just had a whole conversation about my lack of confidence."

"Haha!" TJ reached over, slapping a hand onto Cyrus's shoulder.

"Fine. I'll say it for the both of us then." He grinned. "You are _definitely_ better. I'm glad you're still willing to be my friend after all that."

"I never stopped wanting to be your friend, not even for a moment. Andi and Buffy were just... trying to manage me."

"Still, it makes me happy to hear that."

Cyrus looked up at TJ, his own smile lighting up his face. One hand crept up to brush against TJ's. It was a familiar touch, given the innumerable times the jock had dragged Cyrus into some bro-y side hug--sometimes with quite a bit of force too. But somehow its novelty had never waned, and he still found himself appreciating its warmth on the fiftieth time as much as the first.

"It makes me happy too." 

Something pulled at TJ's insides, he didn't know what. Or, no, that wasn't it exactly--he _knew_ what, most definitely, he had figured out what eons ago. But why was "what" pulling so hard at him now? 

... It was that genuine smile, and the sincerity in his eyes. And the way he replied with what was most definitely the _dorkiest_ response possible, delivered with all the genuineness and sincerity in the world. Heck, the response didn't even make sense! "It makes me happy too"? What does that even mean? Not that that stopped Cyrus from meaning every word of it to the core of his very being, TJ knew. That's just how the boy was. His mouth opened. 

"... Cyrus, I--"

The moment he heard himself he choked the words back. It almost slipped out: those thoughts and feelings buried inside him, hidden from everyone, even Cyrus. 

By god did he want to tell Cyrus. 

But now wasn't the time. Not after he almost screwed everything up, and Andi and Buffy still hated his guts, and the two of them were both still on edge about the whole... incident.

"What is it?" The question lifted from the other's tongue like a feather. TJ could have sworn he sounded almost... hopeful. Their eyes met.

"... Nevermind," he said. TJ shook his head; it was probably just wishful thinking. "Wanna go feed the ducks?" He bounced off his swing and onto the new topic.

"You know there's a sign that says 'do not feed the ducks' right there, right?" 

"I'm dyslexic."

"You're not _that_ kind of dyslexic."

"I'm not?" TJ pouted, feigning befuddlement. "Letters, numbers... what's the difference anyways? Algebra's a nightmare either way."

Cyrus rolled his eyes, but the smile was creeping back onto his face. As TJ jumped off the swings he followed, and the two of them made their way, side by side, towards the pond.


End file.
